Damage from another storm is inevitable

Published 5:06 pm, Thursday, August 15, 2013

At what point, in a time of increasingly muscular storms, are we going to stop subsidizing the reconstruction of private homes in areas that are obviously vulnerable to damage and destruction?

Should the residents of, say, Trumbull and New Canaan -- not to mention Cleveland, Peoria and so on -- through their federal tax payments, pay for the concrete pilings needed to secure private homes in Milford or Norwalk?

With considerable fanfare, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced eatrlier this week that $71 million in federal funds will be available to help people along the Connecticut coast pay for those concrete pilings. It's part of the continuing effort to rebuild from Hurricane Sandy last year.

Don't misunderstand: helping people when they're in trouble is one of the fundamental reasons for having a governement, and the distribution of tax money -- and any other resource available -- to provide that help is what the government is for.

Helping people recover from a disaster is an unquestioned role for government.

But repairing or rebuilding a private home that sits on, say, a barrier island or along a flood plain that has taken -- and is likely to take more -- battering from the wind and water is a proposition for the property owner and his insurance company to consider.

Not the rest of us.

It's no great secret that storms like Sandy are likely to become more frequent in coming years. The hundred-year storm will show up every five or 10 years. And the next Sandy-like storm could make the last one look like a minor inconvenience.

All the more reason to make global climate change and the extreme weather it brings an immediate national priority.

In the meantime, homes and other buildings in harm's way will continue to be in jeopardy. There is no question that there will be another round of devastation and another need for rebuilding. We can even predict where this need is most likely to arise. Insurance companies certainly know.

The hundreds of millions of dollars the government has spent on the repair of public property and infrastructure in the wake of Hurricanes Irene and Sandy is a totally appropriate use of tapayers' money.

But when does the taxpayer-supported rebulding of private property stop? After the next storm? Or the next? Or never?